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'Tens of thousands' of US students sign up for legal P2P

Paying to be guinea pigs, apparently

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The end of control...and safe harbor, too

Playlouder MSP boss Paul Sanders said attitudes had moved forward radically in the last 18 months.

"The rights holding community is now willing to engage with the ISP community. Only two years ago, we'd approach a major label and explain the unlimited model. They'd go, 'fine but our wholesale price is 55p per track.' No one's ever going to start to have a sensible commecial conversation if that's the premise."

He predicted the debate would become more sophisticated as paid-for services were better understood.

"ISPs want a proper, professionally managed service that they can hold accountable for it. That's not the same as a free-for-all. They want the grey area content [eg, mashups, live recordings, and bootlegs], but in a managed environment. A lot of these questions recede as the managed and invested-in services emerge."

Griffin had one interesting observation that was a side-effect of the Net Neutrality fuss.

"How dare you [ISPs] speed some packets up, slow some down, but claim you didn't know what was in them. They no longer deserve the Safe Harbour exemption. To claim otherwise would be blind ignorance. "